Famous Forbade Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Forbade poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous forbade poems. These examples illustrate what a famous forbade poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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Avons Harvest

...now had flown along with him alone 
For twenty years, like Io’s evil insect, 
To sting him when it would. The decencies
Forbade that I should look at him for ever, 
Yet many a time I found myself ashamed 
Of a long staring at him, and as often 
Essayed the dictionary on the table, 
Wondering if in its interior
There was an uncompanionable word 
To say just what was creeping in my hair, 
At which my scalp would shrink,—at which, again, 
I would arouse myself with a vain scorn,...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington


Beowulf (Old English)

...e morn should dawn,
savage, to sever the soul of each,
life from body, since lusty banquet
waited his will! But Wyrd forbade him
to seize any more of men on earth
after that evening. Eagerly watched
Hygelac’s kinsman his cursed foe,
how he would fare in fell attack.
Not that the monster was minded to pause!
Straightway he seized a sleeping warrior
for the first, and tore him fiercely asunder,
the bone-frame bit, drank blood in streams,
swallowed him piecemeal: swi...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Bride of Abydos The

...rief, yet not the same: 
Her heart confess'd a gentler flame: 
But yet that heart, alarm'd, or weak, 
She knew not why, forbade to speak. 
Yet speak she must — but when essay? 
"How strange he thus should turn away! 
Not thus we e'er before have met; 
Not thus shall be our parting yet." 
Thrice paced she slowly through the room, 
And watched his eye — it still was fix'd: 
She snatch'd the urn wherein was mix'd 
The Persian Atar-g?l's perfume, [15] 
And sprinkled all its odour...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Caught in a Net

...Upon her breast her hands and hair 
Were tangled all together. 
The moon of June forbade me not — 
The golden night time weather 
In balmy sighs commanded me 
To kiss them like a feather. 

Her looming hair, her burning hands, 
Were tangled black and white. 
My face I buried there. I pray — 
So far from her to-night — 
For grace, to dream I kiss her soul 
Amid the black and white....Read more of this...
by Lindsay, Vachel

Hiawathas Lamentation

...stened,
Heard the music and the singing,
Came, obedient to the summons,
To the doorway of the wigwam,
But to enter they forbade him.
Through a chink a coal they gave him,
Through the door a burning fire-brand;
Ruler in the Land of Spirits,
Ruler o'er the dead, they made him,
Telling him a fire to kindle
For all those that died thereafter,
Camp-fires for their night encampments
On their solitary journey
To the kingdom of Ponemah,
To the land of the Hereafter.
From the village ...Read more of this...
by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth


Lara

...; 
My halls from such a guest had honour gain'd, 
Nor had Sir Ezzelin his host disdain'd, 
But that some previous proof forbade his stay, 
And urged him to prepare against to-day; 
The word I pledge for his I pledge again, 
Or will myself redeem his knighthood's stain." 

He ceased — and Lara answer'd, "I am here 
To lend at thy demand a listening ear, 
To tales of evil from a stranger's tongue, 
Whose words already might my heart have wrung, 
But that I deem'd him scarcely l...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Mazeppa

...nature’s agony;
His wounds were stiff, his limbs were stark,
The heavy hour was chill and dark;
The fever in his blood forbade
A transient slumber's fitful aid:
And thus it was; but yet through all,
Kinglike the monarch bore his fall,
And made, in this extreme of ill,
His pangs the vassals of his will:
All silent and subdued were they,
As owe the nations round him lay.


III

A band of chiefs! - alas! how few,
Since but the fleeting of a day
Had thinned it; but this wreck wa...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

Pickthorn Manor

...ad known dreadful pain.

LVI
He could not credit it, and misery fed Upon 
his spirit, day by day it grew.
To Gervase he forbade the house, and led The Lady Eunice such 
a life she flew
At his approaching footsteps. Winter came Snowing 
and blustering through the Manor trees.
All the roof-edges spiked with icicles In 
fluted companies.
The Lady Eunice with her tambour-frame
Kept herself sighing company. The flame
Of the birch fire glittered on the walls.

LVII
A letter was bro...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

Rosalind and Helen: a Modern Eclogue

...ng is veiled again.

Oh, that I were now dead! but such--
Did they not, love, demand too much,
Those dying murmurs?--he forbade.
Oh, that I once again were mad! 
And yet, dear Rosalind, not so,
For I would live to share thy woe.
Sweet boy! did I forget thee too?
Alas, we know not what we do
When we speak words.

No memory more
Is in my mind of that sea-shore.
Madness came on me, and a troop
Of misty shapes did seem to sit
Beside me, on a vessel's poop,
And the clear north win...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Stanzas To A Lady On Leaving England

...s fetters too,
With charms perchance as fair to view;
And I would fain have loved as well,
But some unconquerable spell
Forbade my bleeding breast to own
A kindred care for aught but one.

'Twould soothe to take one lingering view,
And bless thee in my last adieu;
Yet wish I not those eyes to weep
For him that wanders o'er the deep;
His home, his hope, his youth are gone,
Yet still he loves, and loves but one....Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Bride of Abydos

...rief, yet not the same: 
Her heart confess'd a gentler flame: 
But yet that heart, alarm'd, or weak, 
She knew not why, forbade to speak. 
Yet speak she must — but when essay? 
"How strange he thus should turn away! 
Not thus we e'er before have met; 
Not thus shall be our parting yet." 
Thrice paced she slowly through the room, 
And watched his eye — it still was fix'd: 
She snatch'd the urn wherein was mix'd 
The Persian Atar-g?l's perfume, [15] 
And sprinkled all its odour...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Diary of Anaïs Nin Volume 1: 1931-1934

..."Am I, at bottom, that fervent little Spanish Catholic child who chastised herself for loving toys, who forbade herself the enjoyment of sweet foods, who practiced silence, who humiliated her pride, who adored symbols, statues, burning candles, incense, the caress of nuns, organ music, for whom Communion was a great event? I was so exalted by the idea of eating Jesus's flesh and drinking His blood that I couldn't swallow the host well, and I dreaded harming th...Read more of this...
by Nin, Anais

The Fight at Eureka Stockade

...y-headed, an' blue-eyed, an' white,
And the diggers said I was his father, an', well, p'r'aps the diggers were right.
I forbade him to stir from the tent, made him swear on the book he'd obey,
But he followed me in, in the darkness, and - was - shot - on Eureka that day.

" `Down, down with the tyrant an' bully,' these were the last words from his mouth
As he caught up a broken pick-handle and struck for the Flag of the South
An' let it in sorrow be written - the worst of thi...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry

The Fight With The Dragon

...est of all can show."

"My son," the master answering spoke,
"Thy daring act this duty broke.
The conflict that the law forbade
Thou hast with impious mind essayed."--
"Lord, judge when all to thee is known,"
The other spake, in steadfast tone,--
"For I the law's commands and will
Purposed with honor to fulfil.
I went not out with heedless thought.
Hoping the monster dread to find;
To conquer in the fight I sought
By cunning, and a prudent mind."

"Five of our noble Order, th...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von

The Giaour

...mocks at misery.
How that pale lip will curl and quiver!
Then fix once more as if for ever;
As if his sorrow or disdain
Forbade him e'er to smile again.
Well were it so - such ghastly mirth
From joyaunce ne'er derived its birth.
But sadder still it were to trace
What once were feelings in that face:
Time hath not yet the features fixed,
But brighter traits with evil mixed;
And there are hues not always faded,
Which speak a mind not all degraded
Even by the crimes through whic...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Lady of the Lake

...y his side
     Rung forth a truce-note high and wide,
     While, in the Monarch's name, afar
     A herald's voice forbade the war,
     For Bothwell's lord and Roderick bold
     Were both, he said, in captive hold.'—
     But here the lay made sudden stand,
     The harp escaped the Minstrel's hand!
     Oft had he stolen a glance, to spy
     How Roderick brooked his minstrelsy:
     At first, the Chieftain, to the chime,
     With lifted hand kept feeble time...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Prisoner of Chillon

...e know
That what we love shall ne'er be so.
I know not why
I could not die,
I had no earthly hope - but faith,
And that forbade a selfish death. 

IX
What next befell me then and there
I know not well - I never knew -
First came the loss of light, and air,
And then of darkness too:
I had no thought, no feeling - none -
Among the stones I stood a stone,
And was, scare conscious what I wist,
As shrubless crags within the mist;
For all was blank, and bleak, and grey;
It was not ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

The Prohibition

...Take heed of loving me;
At least remember I forbade it thee;
Not that I shall repair my unthrifty waste
Of breath and blood, upon thy sighs and tears,
By being to thee then what to me thou wast;
But so great joy our life at once outwears;
Then, lest thy love by my death frustrate be,
If thou love me, take heed of loving me.

Take heed of hating me,
Or too much triumph in the victory;
Not that I shall ...Read more of this...
by Donne, John

The Triumph of Life

...vilion,
"And underneath aetherial glory clad
The wilderness, and far before her flew
The tempest of the splendour which forbade
Shadow to fall from leaf or stone;--the crew
Seemed in that light like atomies that dance
Within a sunbeam.--Some upon the new
"Embroidery of flowers that did enhance
The grassy vesture of the desart, played,
Forgetful of the chariot's swift advance;
"Others stood gazing till within the shade
Of the great mountain its light left them dim.--
Others ou...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

The Wife of Baths Tale

...d many another holy man also.
Where can ye see, *in any manner age,* *in any period*
That highe God defended* marriage *forbade 5
By word express? I pray you tell it me;
Or where commanded he virginity?
I wot as well as you, it is no dread,* *doubt
Th' apostle, when he spake of maidenhead,
He said, that precept thereof had he none:
Men may counsel a woman to be one,* *a maid
But counseling is no commandement;
He put it in our owen judgement.
For, hadde God commanded maidenhea...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

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